This morning I was on my own as Steven was taking part in a cross country race. I set off just after 7am in the dark with a plan of at least 15miles. I made the mistake (again) of going without a head torch. I assumed I’d be alright but I struggled for the first hour as it was a lot darker than I though it would be once I got on the Braes.

The ground was really muddy and it made it even harder when I couldn’t really see where I was putting my feet. On the first time round for the first split of 2.58miles it took me 33mins whereas in the light on the second time round it took 23mins 8secs.

I set off cautious about my hamstring but it was a lot better than yesterday. I could hardly feel it. It wasn’t completely gone but on a scale of 1-10 only a 2! So I’m really happy with that.

I always feel on a run like this one it’s as much about mental strength as physical. It wasn’t easy running in the dark and mud but once the light came through I had more of spring in my step and I really enjoyed the rest of the run.

So my splits for the run were …

So that’s week 1 of my 10 week training plan for Hardmoors 55 completed. This week I’ve ran 5 times for a total of 49.87miles. If I’d realised I was only 0.13 miles short of 50 I might have run up and down the road!!

I noticed the only day that Strava have introduced a new tab called training and it displays your week in a pretty pattern …..

I like that!! Different size circles according to the length of the run. The total on strava and on my Suunto is always slightly less than RunningAhead. Not by much. This week starva has 49.6 whereas RunningAhead has 49.87!

I’m still ahead of the average for 2014 miles in 2014. I tend to get to 1,000 miles by the end of May so I hope to be ahead for most of the year.

It’s good because if I do have a ‘problem’ week for any reason I’m not having to play catch up!